1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device which transmits and receives data through radio communication. Specifically, the invention relates to a semiconductor device in which an integrated circuit is formed with a thin film over an insulating substrate containing glass or the like and to an ID tag and a label-like object using the semiconductor device.
2. Description of the Related Art
A technology referred to as radio frequency identification (also referred to as RFID) has been attracting attention in place of a code referred to as a barcode used for identifying products and the like. RFID is an automatic identification technique utilizing radio communication, and its system is built with a reader/writer device, an IC chip for storing data, and the like. Specifically, the one used for identifying articles is referred to as an RFID tag or the like. The RFID tag is formed by a combination of an antenna and an IC chip provided with a memory and a communication circuit. The size of the IC chip is 2 mm or less on a side (for example, Reference 1: Takahashi et al., “Source is a sesame-sized chip”, Nikkei Electronics, Nikkei Business Publications, Inc., Feb. 25, 2002 issue, No. 816, pp. 109–137).
The IC chip included in the RFID tag is manufactured by employing a manufacturing technique of a semiconductor integrated circuit with the use of a silicon wafer in the same manner as a memory, a microprocessor, or the like.
They say that it is difficult to expand the use of the RFID technology unless the RFID tag drops in price to 10 yen or less.
However, a large amount of facility investment is required to build a new production line of IC chips adopting a manufacturing technique of a semiconductor integrated circuit. Accordingly, it becomes difficult to manufacture IC chips at low cost. For example, facility investment of approximately 150 billion yen is required to build a production line adopting a 12-inch wafer. When running cost is added, it becomes very difficult to make a unit price of the IC chip 100 yen or less.
The 12-inch wafer has an area of approximately 73,000 mm2. Without taking it into account that a processing margin of about 100 μm is required in separating the wafer with a dicing apparatus having a blade of from 20 μm to 50 μm in width, only 73000 chips can be obtained in the case of cutting out 1 mm square chips. Even when 0.4 mm square chips are cut out of the 12-inch wafer, only 182500 chips can be obtained. Therefore, it is very difficult to secure sufficient supply. Thus, production of an RFID tag based on a manufacturing technique of a semiconductor integrated circuit has a problem with cost and stable supply in terms of quantity.
In addition, an IC chip manufactured by using a single crystal silicon substrate has a cleavage plane and has an essential problem that it is sensitive to impact and bending stress. Therefore, the IC chip used for an RFID tag is reduced in size, and treatment of specially scraping the substrate is performed to flake the IC chip. Since scraping an ultra-pure single crystal silicon substrate wastes resources and generates industrial waste, a problem is left also in terms of an environmental issue.